


Things Don't Go Bump in the Night

by Senei



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Bokuto/Akaashi if you squint, Ghost Stories, KageHina (not focused on), M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 15:55:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5632414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Senei/pseuds/Senei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bokuto tells a ghost story, but Kuroo thinks he can do a better job. Kenma regrets this decision for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Things Don't Go Bump in the Night

The second night of the summer training camp found an odd collection of students gathered in the Nekoma team’s room. To Kenma, this seemed like it would be a regular occurrence as he watched Kuro and Bokuto loudly converse with Shouyou and Kageyama. Kenma had checked out some time ago, pulled out his phone and ignored the incessant chatter about volleyball, though it seemed that now the topic of noisy discussion was ghost stories.

 

Specifically, Bokuto had started telling one, and Kenma couldn’t help but listen in.

 

“We have a story at Fukurodani about one of the classrooms - and it’s one hundred percent true, because it happened to me!”

 

Almost immediately, Kuro started laughing and Kenma resisted the urge to toss his pillow at him to get him to shut up. _He’s so loud,_ Kenma thought to himself as he peered over the top of his phone. _All of them are so loud._

 

“What happened?!” Shouyou yelled. He was enraptured, leaning forward so far he had to put his hands out in front of him to stop from falling flat on his face. Kenma noticed that Kageyama also looked interested, though he still had a rather dour expression on his face.

 

“Well, this happened in my first year,” Bokuto went on. “I had to stay late to clean the classroom by myself-”

 

“Probably because you got in trouble,” Akaashi muttered, but was largely ignored.

 

“- and the school building was very quiet. I had heard rumours about our classroom being haunted, but had never believed them, of course. I was going to clean the chalkboard erasers, but fumbled one and dropped it. It fell under one of the desks, and before I could go to pick it up…” Bokuto paused for dramatic affect. His eyes had closed as he spoke, and he opened one, raising a brow, and peered at Shouyou and Kageyama. “A disembodied hand reached up from the shadows under the desk, and put the eraser on the desk.”

 

“ _Woah_!” Shouyou yelled. Even Akaashi raised his eyebrows a bit, like it was a story he actually hadn’t heard before.

 

“Were you scared?!” Shouyou demanded.

 

“I was terrified! Who wouldn’t be? And then as the hand retreated back under the desk, I heard a quiet voice say, ‘You dropped this, take care!’ Terrified, I ran from the classroom and after that, I always made sure I had someone with me when I had to stay late.”

 

Bokuto finished his story and let it hang in the air for a moment, but only a moment, before Kuro burst out laughing.

 

“What a wimpy ghost story!” Kuro brayed. “That ghost isn’t even scary, Owl-face! It just picked up your shit because you were too lazy to do it yourself.”

 

Bokuto rounded on him. “Yeah, well! Admit it, you would have been terrified had you been in my situation.”

 

Kuro laughed harder. “No way! I would have said ‘thank-you’ and continued on my way.”

 

“I thought it was a good story…” Kageyama unexpectedly cut in. He sounded so sincere, Kenma was sure it was what put an end to the yelling - for which he was thankful.

 

“Fine, lets see you tell a better one, then,” Bokuto challenged as he settled back down onto a borrowed futon - it belonged to Lev who, upon reflection, was suspiciously absent from the gathering.

 

With a smug smirk on his face, Kuro leaned forward slightly so everyone sitting on the futons could see him. He made eye contact with Kenma for a moment, who made sure he kept his face blank, and Kuro's smirk turned into a full-blown grin. “Well, well, well... I have a story that takes place in this very building.”

 

“This building is haunted?!” Shouyou asked. He looked between Kuro and Kenma, who apparently had all the answers. Kenma just gave a little shrug in response.

 

“Listen up, Chibi-san, and I'll tell you the story... of the Shinzen Academy's haunted toilet,” Kuro said. “Ogano told us this story last summer, it happened to a third year at the summer training camp one year before he came to Shinzen. The third year had gotten up late at night to go to the toilet, the one just down the hall from this room, and when he got there he found that the third stall was closed – very odd, as he knew all his teammates were fast asleep... When he listened closely, he thought he could hear someone crying quietly from inside the stall.”

 

Shouyou had grabbed onto Kageyama's knee, and Kageyama was staring down at Shouyou's hand, with his bottom lip caught between his teeth. Even Bokuto had stopped looking smug, and was listening attentively to what Kuro was saying. Kuro had dropped his voice, speaking quietly as the group seemed to be holding their collective breath. Kenma put down his phone, tucked his knees up to his chest, and thought he might as well listen to the rest of the story.

 

“The third year, worried that someone might be sick, walked up to the third stall and knocked quietly three times on the door – knock, knock, knock -” Kuro murmured quietly, rapping his fist against his thigh to imitate the motion “- and the crying stopped. The third year thought he might have been hearing things, so he called out, 'Is anyone there?' and after a few moments... a little voice called back, 'I'm here.'”

 

Bokuto's eyebrows shot up. Kenma shifted uncomfortably, he'd fallen completely into Kuro's trap, and he felt Shouyou twitch violently like he wanted to yell, but he was stopping himself.

 

Kuro smirked at them all, head tilted forward so that his eyes glinted from behind his messy fringe. “The door to the stall unlocked and slowly, it opened ever so slightly. The third year could feel his own heart pounding in his chest, but he pushed the door open and inside he saw...”

 

He paused for dramatic effect.

 

“A young child, standing in the stall, pale as death – but that wasn't what scared the student the most! The child's eyes had been gouged out, and before the third year could run away she grabbed him and pulled him into the stall.”

 

Kuro stopped. Collectively held breath was released, and very quietly, very uncertainly, Bokuto asked, “What happened next?”

 

Kuro shrugged. “They found him in the morning, but no one could say... All I know is, he never showed up at school again. That was the last his teammates saw of him.”

 

It was so quiet in the room, that you could have dropped a pin and heard it hit the ground. The other Nekoma members, who had largely been ignoring the group of intruders, had even stopped their own conversations to listen in at the end. Everyone looked about uneasily at each other, not sure what to say.

 

“But it's just a story, right?” Shouyou finally broke the silence. “Ghost stories aren't really?”

 

Kuro laughed. “Can't say, all I can tell you is what I heard. I'm sure you could ask Ogano about it.”

 

Before anything else could be said, the door to the room banged open and everyone jumped. Shouyou, Kageyama, and Bokuto all yelped in fright, and they all turned dramatically to look at the door.

 

Yaku was standing there, with Lev – looking completely exhausted – standing behind him. “What? Did something happen?” Yaku asked.

 

“We were telling ghost stories,” Kuro told him. “Were you two practicing after dinner?”

 

Yaku nodded and came inside. “I'm going to make a receiver out of this idiot, even if it kills him.”

 

“Isn't it 'if it kills me?'” Lev muttered as he staggered in after Yaku, dropping face-first onto an unoccupied futon.

 

The spell of Kuro's story successfully broken, Bokuto stretched and yawned loudly, before he dropped an arm around Akaashi's shoulder. “Well, I guess I'll give that one to you, Kuro – that story was pretty scary. We should get back to our room, though.”

 

Akaashi removed Bokuto's arm, but nodded his agreement. “We'll see you all in the morning,” he said as he stood up, helped Bokuto to his feet. There was a round of 'goodnights' as they left the room.

 

“We should go, too,” Kageyama said.

 

“We should! Goodnight, senpai! Goodnight, Kenma.”

 

“Goodnight, Chibi-san!”

 

“Night, Shouyou...”

 

With their guests gone, and only the Nekoma team left, things soon quieted down as they all settled into bed. Kenma fiddled on his phone for a while, before he turned it off and rolled onto his side to sleep. He saw Kuro next to him, sprawled out on his stomach with he face tucked into his bent arms, already fast asleep, and Kenma smiled. His hair was going to be even worse in the morning, if he kept sleeping like that.

 

******

 

Later that night, Kenma woke up to someone shaking his arm. He hadn't realized he'd fallen asleep, and blinked in the dark to try and see who had woken him up. It was Kuro, mess of black hair and nose scrunched up by an expression that looked ridiculous on his face. “Kenma...” he hissed quietly.

 

“What's wrong?” Kenma whispered back.

 

Kuro paused, now that Kenma was awake, and bit his bottom lip. “I-I have to go to the bathroom...”

 

Kenma stared at him, then rolled away. “Then go, nothing's stopping you.”

 

“But I heard a noise!” Kuro exclaimed, loud enough to make a few bodies stir around them. He stayed quiet for a few moments, then resumed his whispering. “I heard a noise when I got up, and I really don't want to go alone- what if...”

 

Kenma'd had a feeling this would happen. Kuro had a track record of trying to be brave, and cool, and scaring himself with his own stories. He'd been like that for as long as Kenma had known him, and Kenma had walked him to the bathroom more than he'd like to admit when they were kids. It hadn't been a problem since high school, and yet... Here they were. Kenma sighed. “I'll go with you...”

 

He pushed his blanket back, and got up. As a pair, they stepped around the other futons and left the room. Kenma led the way down the hall, and almost immediately Kuro reached out and took his hand, trailing after him just like a little kid.

 

“Aren't you older than me?” Kenma muttered.

 

Kuro laughed nervously. “Sorry, I know I'm a bother.”

 

Kenma shrugged, and glanced back over his shoulder shoulder quickly before looking away again. There was a touch of colour in his cheeks, he could feel the heat from his flush creeping upwards. “I don't mind so much when it's you.”

 

He couldn't bring himself to look back, but he did feel Kuro's pace falter ever so slightly, and his grip tighten around Kenma's hand.

 

“Kenma's being so kind to me,” Kuro said in what Kenma assumed was a teasing manner, but he sounded honestly pleased.

 

They reached the toilets, and Kenma stopped at the door. Despite himself, he paused before he pushed the door open. For only a moment, he was a little worried that they might find something inside, but he shook himself. It was stupid, a completely made up story that Kuro had told them to get a rise out of everyone. There were absolutely no ghosts in that toilet.

 

He pushed open the door and led Kuro inside. Both of them immediately looked at the stalls, all three of them open and unoccupied. Kuro laughed nervously, and Kenma breathed a sigh of relief.

 

“See, there's nothing here,” Kenma said. “Use the toilet, then lets go back to bed.”

 

Kuro gave him what might have passed as an apologetic glance as he bustled into the toilet, passed Kenma, who let the door close after his friend. Not feeling like standing in the bathroom while Kuro peed, he leaned against the wall by the door to wait for him.

 

******

 

“Kenma?”

 

For the second time that night, Kenma rolled over to find Kuro looking at him. “You don't have to use the toilet again, do you?”

 

Kuro shook his head. “Can I sleep in your futon with you?”

 

After a moment of contemplation, and noting the still-distressed look on Kuro's face, Kenma sighed and moved over so that Kuro could lay down next to him. “I can't believe you scared yourself with that story,” he muttered.

 

Kuro crawled under the blanket and pressed himself up against Kenma's back, long arms snaked around Kenma's middle to pull him close. “Pretty pathetic, huh?”

 

“Not really,” Kenma said.

 

There was quiet for a moment, Kenma could feel Kuro's breath on the back of his head, then Kuro mumbled, “Goodnight, Kenma.”

 

With a sigh, Kenma snuggled back into Kuro's chest and whispered, “Goodnight, Kuro,” in reply.

 

**Author's Note:**

> The story Bokuto tells is based on a ghost story from the manga 'Here is Green Wood.' Kuroo's story is based on the story of 'Hanako-san,' but pretty loosely. Hanako-san is a ghost story most commonly told by elementary school level children, and is something only they should find remotely scary. As the author, I must state I am not a horror writer and don't even pretend to be. The aim of this wasn't to be scary, it was to make fun of Kuroo. And I guess Bokuto, as well. 
> 
> Thanks to AuNomDuRoi for beta-ish reading this for me. Also for prompting this with silly late-night headcanons. And thank-YOU for reading!


End file.
